When You Slice Tomatoes, Slice Tomatoes

“Then I asked the Roshi if he had any advice for me as the cook. His answer was straightforward and down-to-earth: ‘When you wash the rice, wash the rice; when you cut the carrots, cut the carrots; when you stir the soup, stir the soup.’

‘Ok,’ I decided, ‘I’ll make those words my life.’ They became a life jacket, the proverbial Buddhist ‘raft’, something which keeps you afloat, even when you are going under.”

The Earth is shaking hard in my life right now. It’s shaking and spinning and I just keep coming back to my writing and my food. The above quote sit perfectly at the heart of what I call the presence in Food Practice. Nothing ever exists beyond what you are engaged in for that moment. And so today, while I sliced tomatoes, I simply sliced tomatoes.